The Mark of Love
by Gingerme
Summary: Mal enters Hogwarts sure of one thing, she is going to make waves. The daughter of a death eater, with a rumor spreading like wildfire that she is the spawn of the Dark lord, how could she not? But a week into school a trip to the hospital wing reveals a shocking truth, everything she knew is questioned. But one thing is for sure, Maleficent Lestrange is making waves.


I don't own Harry Potter, but one day I hope to read a fanfic of someone claiming they do, because I would love to believe that in her spare time JK Rowling writes HP fan fic.

This Story is rated Teen for some mature themes, mild abuse and possible self harm/poor coping skills, none of which will be graphic. No signifigant paring, but mostly following the original stuff. It's AU, and Snape is good/nice in this story. I like sad stories, so read at your own risk. No character deaths.

Chapter 1

"What's your name?" a young bright eyed witch asked as she settled on the train seat next to Maleficent.

She scowled into the window, watching her mother wave enthusiastically from the station. Her long black robes and dark make up setting her apart from everyone else in the crowd, if the five foot radius the respectable parents kept around her wasn't enough. She glanced up at the girl and smiled "Mal" she said quietly, mumbling and hoping that the witch wouldn't ask what it stood for, wouldn't recognize who she was. That was all the introduction you really needed to Mal's mother, she was the kind of person who was dramatic and audacious enough to name a baby Maleficent. A baby born just as the wizard of all time had been taken down. Sometimes she still wondered how she hadn't ended up in Azkaban with the dark lord's followers. Then again, Bellatrix was far from stupid, she only appeared that way to manipulate people, she was a slithering after all.

Mal could tell by the passive look on the girl's face that she didn't suspect her, so she smiled back. Maybe going to Hogwarts wasn't going to be too bad after all.

The girl settled back into her seat, propping a large book up on her knees. Her curly brown hair almost enveloping her head as she leaned against the seat. "My name is Hermione, I'm in my second year."

Mal smiled again, chuckling as the girl blew a strand of hair out of her face. The train started to move, and Mal leaned towards the window to wave goodbye one more time. As much as her mother embarrassed her, she was really scared to be going away. _She needs me… I'm all she has…_ Bellatrix was insane, Mal knew that, and she was paranoid, so they hadn't gone out much when she was growing up. She really only ever spent time with her family, cousin Draco was the only friend she had her own age. But despite what people probably though, her childhood had been good. Mum loved her, and they had fun in their own little corner of the world.

Hermione gave her an understanding look "You're a first year?" She asked sympathetically. "The first time is always the hardest. But Hogwarts is amazing! There is no place like it."

Before Mal could respond Hermione stood and looked out the door in frustration. "Where are Ron and Harry? I hope they aren't doing anything stupid."

Hermione started talking about her friends, explaining the stupid things they got themselves into. But Mal wasn't listening at all. "You're friends with Harry Potter?" she asked in shock, irony hitting her like a ton of bricks.

Hermione gave her a patronizing smile as she sat back down. "Yes, he's really just a normal kid… he was just a baby, he doesn't even remember killing…"

Mal smiled viciously "My father" she finished for her, then watched as Hermione processed the information.

"What? You're…. But…but how?"

Mal stood and gathered her things "probably the same way your parents did it. But if I'm being honest I never asked for the particulars."

At that moment Draco appeared in the doorway, one look at Hermione and he guessed what had happened. "Oh come on Mal, do you really need to be spreading that rumor? Grab your stuff, I promised aunt Bellatrix I would keep an eye on you."

Mal gave Hermione a wicked smile, then followed Draco out of the room. Draco took her to another carriage filled with Slytherin, and introduced her to all his friends. It was obvious that despite Draco's distain for it, the rumor of her parentage had spread throughout most of the school, and most of the people she was introduced to looked at her with a sense of aw and fear. Draco never left her side, as much as she enjoyed leading people on, she appreciated his protective presence. He didn't leave her side until they arrived at hogwarts, and she was carted off with the rest of the first years.

When professor Mcgonagall called her name the entire room seemed to freeze. She absentmindedly wondered if they had responded similarly when Harry Potter took the stage during his first year. She walked up with her head held high and perched on the stool. As the hat fell onto her red curls she held her breath, her soul frozen in anticipation.

 _Hmmmm, interesting… what do we have here. So sure of who you'll be aren't you._

 _Why shouldn't I be?_

 _No reason young witch, let me see…. The head of a snake and the heart of a lion. Life has many surprises for you yet._

 _Ha, I am not a Gryfindor, half this school thinks I'm the dark lords spawn._

The hat paused uncertainly _You want very much to be in the house of snakes? If that is your choice I won't stop you… But I still say there is lion blood in your heart._

"Slytherin!"

The silver and green table roared with applause, no matter who she was, this house stuck together.

Her first week at hogwarts flew by. Between Draco and Uncle Severus she never felt too alone, and her entire house seemed to like her, even if some of them were afraid of her. One night as she and the other first years were heading to bed her friend Lacy finally got up the courage to ask.

"Is it true? Is he who shall not be named really your…"

Mal laughed "my father? Who knows, my mother won't deny it… but she's never told me he is either."

The first Saturday of the year She woke up early to watch quittich practice, Draco was the new seeker, and she wanted to support him on his first day. It was the first time she had actually laid eyes on the infamous Harry Potter and his idiot side kick. Rumors had been flying around school about them flying to school in a stolen car, but today he looked unscathed.

She glared at him as he sputtered about Draco being the new Slytherin seeker. The rest of the team started to weigh in, and before she knew it the idiot ginger was trying to hex them with his broken wand. All she saw was a flash of green, and then she was lying in the infirmary, Draco sitting next to her protectively and the sound of her mother's voice shrieking through the curtain. "I WANT HIM EXPELLED!"

She gave Draco a worried look, but he shook his head quietly "Uncle Sev is out there, he'll calm her down."

It took almost an hour, but eventually Draco's prediction came true. Snape finally convinced Bellatrix to take Mal home for the weekend and calm down. As they got ready to floo home she saw the red headed boy and who she assumed were his parents head into Poppy's office. _I hope he does get expelled_ she thought darkly.

Once they were home her mother fussed about her. "Oh honey, how are you feeling? Do you want to go lie down? I swear I will go hex that boy myself, it's been a while since I used a forbidden curse."

Mal sighed, giving her mother a tight hug. "I'm fine Mum, he just knocked me out."

Bellatrix smiled worriedly "I know dear… It's just, you're all I have… I don't know what I would do without you…."

"I'm not going anywhere Mum, I'm really okay… I think I'll just go jump in the shower. You get the house elves to make us something to eat and we can have a movie night."

Her mother gave her a possessive look, but she relented.

The hot shower felt good, it had been a really long week and her head was pounding from that bloody boys stupid spell. She was pulling on her favorite pair of sweat pants and a black long sleeve tee when she heard voices down stairs _. Just like mom to throw a party after I get hurt, I'm sure she's telling people she feared for my life._ She thought sarcastically. But as she started to walk down the stairs the voices changed, turned nasty, and she felt her heart drop. She took the last half of the stair case three at a time, and exploded into the front hall nearly tripping on her face. Uncle Sev and mum were standing with their wands out, facing the man and woman she had seen at Hogwarts, the ginger boy's parents.

Her mom was screaming almost wordlessly, talking rapidly like she did when she was loosing control. Maleficent gave her uncle a nervous look, and was not comforted by what she saw.

Her mom had realized she was there now, she turned and grabbed both of her arms, tight "Run darling, run, they want to take you away!" but she wouldn't let go, her fingers dug into Mal's arms, and mal had to bit her lip to keep from crying out.

The red headed woman lost it then, she charged across the room throwing wordless curses at Bellatrix.

"GET AWAY FROM MY DAUGHTER YOU BITCH!"

Suddenly Mum was knocked against the stairs, and Mal could feel blood leaking out of her skin where her nails had been. She stood where she was, frozen, and waited for her mom to stand up, but she didn't. She willed herself to move but she was stuck in her place, watching as her uncle leaned down towards her mother and put her into magical cuffs before he even checked her pulse. _Please be alive, she has to be alive._

The red headed woman who had hexed her was sobbing, and hugging her, Mal was still frozen, and empty. She couldn't shrug this person off, she couldn't tell her to get the hell away from her. She couldn't do anything, and her mother was lying on the stairs bleeding.

After ensuring that Bellatrix was alive Snape turned to check on Maleficent. "Molly," He admonished "let her go Molly, please she doesn't know hats going on."

As Snape pulled the woman away from her, Maleficent suddenly found herself able to move, she rushed to the stairs, falling hard on the bare wood. But her mother was gone. "Mum?" She called in shock "Where is she? What have you done with her?" She asked the adults standing gaping at her. "WHERE IS MY MOTHER?" she screamed at them, but still no one answered her. Suddenly she was up, running full force at the woman "What did you do? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH HER?"

Snape stepped in her path, enveloping her with both arms. "Shhh, it's okay Mal, your mom is alive… you're going to be okay."

Mal fought against him until she was too tired to fight anymore. The ginger boy's parents were still standing in her front hall, crying like crazy people. She didn't understand. Why were they here, why did they want to hurt her mother.

Snape led her over to the floo and threw some powder into the fire. "Molly, Arthur, I am taking Mal to the infirmary, she's bleeding and she's had quite a shock. I want you both to floo to Dumbledore's office, I will meet you there. And _please_ listen to me this time." Snape said over his shoulder before guiding Mal into the fire place and muttering "Hogwarts infirmary."

The hospital wing was just as crisp and bustling as it had been when Mal had left with her mother, less than an hour before. But everyone froze when she and Severus entered the room. Madam Pomfrey quickly barked everyone back to their business, and led the two newcomers to the private exam room next to her office.

As they entered the room Mal seemed to regain her ability to speak, everything from the day flooding together, causing her brain to raise alarming questions. "Who were those people? That woman…. She called me her, her…. Uncle Severus where is my mother…. Why did she hex her, where did you send her? Tell me she is still… still…"

Snape sighed and guided the girl to the bed in the middle of the room, gently seating her down. "Mal, I need you to try and stay calm" he said in his most soothing voice. Many of the students at Hogwarts would like to believe that Snape was unable to be soothing, caring, it was after all, a trait he hid to the best of his ability. But he had always had a soft spot for his red headed niece. Though no one dared to suggest it, she bared a remarkable resemblance to another young red head he had known. He had never been terribly close to Bellatrix, but being the youngest of the dark lord's followers, they had shared a certain connection, and when he saw her with that baby, all those years ago, he knew he couldn't leave them alone. Goodness knows what might have happened by now if Snape hadn't been around to fill the pantry when Bella went through one of her spells, or sit and talk with Maleficent when she didn't come home at night.

"Your mother is alive, I promise you. Mrs. Weasley only stunned her, I transported her to the ministry of magic where she is safe in custody. I promise."

Mal nodded, only slightly comforted. "But why? That woman… she … she called me her…."

Snape sighed "Daughter" he finished for her. "Mal, when you came into the infirmary today, after Ronald hit you with that blasted spell, Madam Pomfery first attended to your immediate wounds, but then she started her general first year diagnositics. It's something I require of all the first years in our house, to establish a baseline and catch any possible abuse early on. It is entirely too common in our house unfortunately."

Mal turned to him in horror "Uncle Sev you know that Mum loves me, she has her problems, but she has never abused me… never I promise!"

Severus held up a hand "I know, she is a far cry from the best mother in the world, but today was not because we believe she had abused you…. Mal did you know that wizards and witches carry a magical scent, almost a magical DNA, that can be used to identify them?"

The young girl shook her head.

"Well they do, and this magical DNA, much like human DNA, links you to your family, to your parents…"

Maleficent did not like where this was going at all.

"Part of the diagnostics that Poppy does, includes identifying your magical scent… it is standard in any medical exam, incase there were ever an accident and a wizard or witches body needed to be identified. But it has other uses…. Such as finding victims of kidnapping…."

Her stomach dropped, she couldn't breathe. He was wrong, he had to be wrong. "No, she is my mother, Uncle Sev you've known me since I was a baby, how could you say that… that…"

Snape sighed, hating the words as he spoke them. "Maleficent, your magical scent is not from the Lestrange family… But Poppy recognized it, from another wizarding family, the Weasleys. They are your parents."

Now she was standing, backing into a corner in horror. "No, it's not possible…. I am a Lestrange….. She is my mother!" She fell to the floor and pulled her knees to her chest. "She is my mum… she is my mum…" She wanted to cry, but no tears came. She just felt strangely empty.

Severus waited until she had calmed down to lead her back to the bed. "I know this is a shock, I am sure you have a lot of questions… but there is time for that. Right now we need to let Poppy look over you, and clean up these cuts." He handed her a calming draught, which she downed without question. "I need to go talk with your parents and Dumbledore. But I will come back to check on you."

Mal didn't look at him, she didn't dare. "That was what the hat meant. That darned hat knew all along."

Snape paused, unsure for a moment, "What?"

"The sorting hat, it told me I had lion blood… I argued with it, told it it was wrong…. But that stupid hat knew."

Snape sighed, at a loss for words.

After Snape left Poppy came in, and helping her to ease off the blood stained black shirt, revealing long gashes down each of her arms, with finger shaped bruises at the top of each.

"Don't heal them" Maleficent burst out, unsure why she said it.

Poppy gave her a worried look "that's my job dear, they look painful, and they could get infected."

Maleficent bit her lip, unsure how to explain what she wanted, without getting committed to St Mungo's psych ward. "I want them to heal naturally. Please, I know it sounds stupid, and crazy… but I need… I need to remember that today was real, I need evidence that it actually happened…. This is the last bit of my mum I have left, they will never let me see her again… I need this."

Poppy sighed, uncertain "I don't know Maleficent, do you really want reminders of this? Of how she hurt you?"

Mal furrowed her brows, torn between anger and confusion. "She didn't hurt me, not on purpose… my mother would never hurt me, she loved me. This happened because that, that woman, hexed her while she was holding on to me. That is how much she loved me, how tightly she was holding onto me when that _woman_ blew her away. It's my body, I want to keep them."

Poppy sighed, but stopped arguing, the girl had certainly been through a shock, and although the gashes looked painful, there were not terribly deep and she was confident they would heal on their own. She did insist on cleaning them with a salve, and giving Mal a pain potion."

It wasn't long after they had finished, and Mal hand changed into the clothes Snape had had sent for her, that the Weasleys showed back up. She was sitting in the bed in the private room, feeling calmer than she should, probably due to the calming draught and pain potion. Snape had had one of the Slytherin prefects bring her some clothes, a pair of black jeans and a loose green sweater that she loved. The prefect had thought to bring some other things, including her cosmetic bag and a few of the novels from her room, incase Mal had to stay the night.

She was in the middle of applying thick, black, eyeliner when her 'parents' entered the room. She knew it was wrong, she didn't wear make up this heavy most of the time, but she knew that it would shock them, and it did.

Molly looked at her with a mixture of horror and sadness, tears brimming over her eyes. She pressed her lips together as if she was biting back words. Mal could only guess Snap had coached them to give her some distance.

The man, whose name she did not know, was also biting his lip, but unlike her 'mother' he did not seem to be holding back criticism. Instead he seemed to be trying not to burst with happiness. "I can't believe we found you…" He finally said.

She sat on the bed, compact in hand and eyeliner poised, unsure how to respond.

The woman finally stepped forward, seemingly unable to bear being away from her long lost daughter. "I am so sorry…. I don't know what you must think of us…. I can't imagine what you've been through. But none of that matters now, because we have our Ginny back."

Mal stared at her, lowering the compact. "My name is Maleficent." she said coldly.

Mrs. Weasley stared at her, uncertain how to respond. "Honey, that is what _that woman_ told you your name was, she lied to you… to keep you from us… your name is Ginnifer Weasley."

Mal took a breath, not dropping her glare from the woman. " _That woman_ raised me, she loved me… she is the only mother I have ever known. I know you say she kidnapped me, and maybe she did… but she has been my mother for the past eleven years, not you. And my name is Maleficent."

Mrs. Weasley looked as though she was going to argue back, but her husband stepped in. "Okay, I am sorry Maleficent. I cannot imagine how confusing this is for you… Of course we won't ask you to change your name, you're right, it's the only one you've ever know. But you have to give us time to adjust, okay? I understand that you love her, and I'm glad, because that means she was good to you. Oh I wish with all my heart she had never taken you, but I think I would die if you hadn't been loved for the past eleven years…. So I am glad that you love her."

At that moment Uncle Severus walked into the room, coming to stand next to her bed protectively.

"So what happens now?" Mal asked nervously

Mrs. Weasley smiled "You come home, your brothers are waiting to meet you…"

"So that's it? I 'come home' I just have to be a part of your family whether I want to or not? What about Mum? Doesn't anyone care if I want to be with her?"

Severus sucked in his breath, giving the Weasleys a measured look. "I think, perhaps, it would be best if Maleficent stayed here tonight… It has been an overwhelming day to say the least, and I think we would all benefit from some time to process."

Mrs. Weasley looked hurt, and Mal didn't blame her… she almost felt bad for what she had said. "Okay…" The older woman consented "If that is what you want G-Maleficent… I know this is hard for you… and I can't imagine what it must be like to learn all of this in one day… But we are your family, and that is never going to change.


End file.
